u. s. u k o dewresey microns is it comes as a top russian diplomat rounded on mainstream reports that moscow is supposedly amassed 70 percent of its military power needed to invade ukraine. another master piece of us propaganda wore unnamed officials undisclosed sources, no evidence, and as b. o. so if you openly question such fakes, you won't get answers and will be labeled a russian apologist. as mainstream media stories on a suppose it invasion. pile up nato is enhancing its presence near russia. a plane carrying pentagon troops and equipment was spotted landing in poland on sunday, near the ukrainian border. and nato is also considering long term military increases in the eastern europe. meanwhile, britons defense chief says. busy u k will send 350 troops to poland martinez. dan hawkins examines what behind west current obsession with russia invading ukraine. even for those who don't watch the news, reports of a coming russian invasion of ukraine would be hard to miss. we believe that there is a very interesting possibility that vladimir putin will order an attack on ukraine . it could take a number of different forms. it could happen as soon as tomorrow, or it could take some weeks yet. we do have information that it is that the russians are likely to want to fabricate a pretext for an invasion, which again is right out of their playbook. it's been like groundhog day, 3 months of reports, analysis and countdowns of just when moscow will be ready to launch its attack. with me, a daily news stories, it's almost like news headline, bingo reports of ballooned and intensity. and in depth, initial claims focused on the number of troops most good move to the border. as the weeks went by outlets cited analysts and sauce

u. s. o the u. k. so you do have to take that into account as well when you look at the political communication and then 3 germans are somewhat careful when it comes to western intelligence. intelligence that is supposed to give you a reason for preparing for war and germans have learned that from the situation before the iraq war in the early 2, thousands. when a western alliance went to war, japanese stayed out and history proof them, right? roman johnson, shortest visit is being seen as one of the last opportunities for diplomatic solution, but protein has made it quite clear that the person the most wants to hear from is yours president joe biden. what does that mean for these talks? well, so i don't think it's the last time for a diplomatic solution. i think we will see more diplomatic rounds and talks on the top level as to your question as well that russia sees the european union and ukraine even more so as puppets for, for america. for puppets of the united states. so they say we want to talk t

u. k and the e u. o. u. s. by the ship is okay, and you're in a union? well, it is a, it's a story about our relationship with of the, with in the countries u. k. us, european union. and of course we do have different relations with each of the states. but in the recent years, it has become the partnership, or we have no policy of deterrence, which is totally different containment deterrence. as these are wars which i know much more in ripley instead of a diplomacy dialogue partnership. and so we have to take our own position because we are of course, standing for continuation of partnership, but we cannot stand. we cannot accept this policy of containment and detours. so this is where, cuz i find that some european countries want to be less reliance on the us, france, and hungary for example. you know, we do see that of course some countries have, they do have bullish on their own. they don't want a standard approach of the in the standard that us, if i needed a here nonstandard ideas. the let us see a literacy about much of new thinking. so what we have

ah o much longer can we take the u. s. and u. k. seriously, there war of words is dangerous and reckless. the rest of nato and even ukraine are much more restrained. but there's a comp, deborah ukraine. it will be a conflict. washington in london, endlessly promot once a tease and you as a merge, we don't have a charity. we don't have a vaccine. the whole world leads to take action to be ready. people are judgment. 2 common crisis with we can do better, we should be better. everyone is contributing each in their own way. but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever. the challenge is great, the response has been massive. so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we're in it together. join me every thursday on the alex salmon. sure. i'll be speaking to guess in the world of politics. sport, business. i'm show business. i'll see you then. mm . ah, when the abuse the deal is with this or leave me a loss because of the with the music issue for the dinner and do you know the meal said we'd sniff per

o much longer can we take the u. s. and u. k. seriously, there war of words is dangerous and reckless. the rest of nato and even ukraine are much more restraint. but there's a comp number ukraine, it will be a conflict. washington in london, england is your media a reflection of reality in the world transformed what will make you feel safer? isolation for community. are you going the right way or are you being led to somewhere? direct? what is true? what is great? in the world corrupted, you need to descend a join us in the depths or remain in the shallows. ah, counted as prime minister invoked the emergency to give you government extra powers to handle ongoing protests against coven mandate. the international olympic committee rules there won't be any awards ceremony for russian biggest, big, gaping star camila belyea. despite the 15 year old being clear to further compete at the beijing with the games president pre approved the draft, respond to the u. s. and an on going back and forth on security approach proposals amid the c

u. s. the u. k. quick to point the finger at russia over this latest d d o. s. attack on ukraine. how could they be so sure? well, when it comes down to attribution of a cyber attack, there's 2 questions. it's a matter of the data that you have, which the u. s. and u. k. through their signals, intelligence agencies, the national security agency, and the g. c, h q of quite a bit, but the bigger question here is political will. historically, the u. s. u k, have been much slower to point the finger countries like russia for cyber attacks, most notably in 2016 when it took quite a while for the government to speak up as the cyber attacks around the election took place. it seems that this administration has taken those lessons the heart and they are deliberately moving much, much faster than the u. s. was ever done before. just how dangerous are these cyber attacks, or are they just a nuisance? well right now the, the question the answer is mixed. so as you said, denial of service attacks effectively bring down services. and they're, they're technically simple, but they're really about perception. they're about undermining confidence in the government and at a moment like this that's, that's pretty important. the wiper malware today that you

and as we go to break here, the numbers at the close, ah o, much longer can we take the u. s. u k. seriously. there war of words is dangerous and reckless. the rest of nato and even ukraine are much more restraint. but there's a comp number ukraine, there will be a conflict. washington in london, england promote the democratic republic of congo is among the richest countries in the world and natural resources. but he cannot mclee, it's still one of the poorest cobalt is an essential material in manufacturing batteries for modern devices like electric cars, mobile phones and computers. 60 percent of the wealth cobalt reserves are in congo 20 percent of it comes from small scale mines. units have figures confirm that in 2017, more than 40000 children worked in cobalt mining in the republic to earn a living and paying for schooling. next time you you as a fancy gant, you have like a smartphone camera laptop. and just remember that there's a chance it works thanks to what child hard labor children like, john michelle henry at o. countless others. like them. look forward to talking to

o much longer can we take the u. s. and u. k. seriously, there war of words is dangerous and reckless. the rest of nato and even ukraine are much more restraints. but there's a comp number ukraine. there will be a conflict, washington and london endlessly promot wanda mic. no city, no borders and just like to tease and you as a merge, we don't have a charity. we don't have a vaccine. the whole world needs to take action to be ready. people are judgment. 2 common crisis with we can do better, we should be better. everyone is contributing each in their own way. but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever. the challenge is great to response has been massive. so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we are in it together. oh, when i was showing wrong, when i just don't hold any world is yes to say proud disdain becomes the advocate an engagement. it was the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look so common ground. ah, if you were to ask the national police associat

o countless others like them. for months the u. s. and the u. k. of warner, russia may invade ukraine, and yet there has been no invasion for their part. the russians are made abundantly clear. europe's current security arrangement is untenable. saxon powers of war. russia talks about security. a with russia starts with drawing is treatment from the border with ukraine as military exercises draw to a close enough. despite daily alarmist western predictions of an imminent russian invasion, we have not yet verified the russian military units are returning to their home base. and despite the major pullback of russian troops, the white house doesn't yet see that the escalation with joe biden saying he wants more fruit also ahead. the canadian prime minister triggers a never before used emergency di grants and these government extra power to break up a truck is protest. i think back to the mandate. it's great to concern among provincial chiefs to question the measures boy and legitimacy. we don't believe this is necessary and alberta we think it could a

o d w ah ah, this is dw news. why? from berlin doubling down on diplomacy as tensions mount over ukraine. the u. s. and the u. k. threatened new sanctions. if russia invades drawing a blistering response from vladimir potent also coming up on the show, the situation is under control. so says that president m below of guinea was south after a crew attempt in the west african country report say the attack on the government palace involved nearly 5 hours of gunfire plus on icey roads to the beijing winter olympics. in coming athletes already testing positive for coven 19. and countries including the u. s. staging a diplomatic employ caught for china's treatment of its weaker minority. ah. hello em claire richardson. a warm welcome to the show. the international community is stepping up diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis over ukraine. the us and britain are threatening to impose tough new sanctions if russia invades ukraine, u. s. secretary of state antony blank and has reinforced washington support for kiff. meanwhile, russian president vladimir putin has hit back in his 1st remarks on the crisis. in a month.

o rushes. escalation of the crisis over ukraine has been followed by a swift response from government, including the u. s. the european union, the u. k, canada and japan. they have been working together to coordinate sanctions against moscow. speaking earlier us president joe biden said russia has started to invade ukraine and he outlined the measures being taken by washington. who in the lord's name was prudent st. gives them the right to declare new, so call countries on territory the belonged, whose neighbors were implementing full blocking sanctions on 2 large russian financial institutions. v e b and our military back were implementing compress, thanks is on russia's sovereign debt. that means we've cut off rushes government from western financing. it can no longer raise money from the west and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or european markets, either starting to morrow and continued in the days ahead. we'll also impose sanctions on russia's elite and their family members. they share in the corrupt gaze of the kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well. for more, let's bring in our washington bureau chie

u. s. and u. k. taking the lead. however, not only from members on board, even ukraine is attempting to dampen expectations of an armed conflict with russia while washington in london get their way in o bbc world. so busy with a wrong to continue to maintain a high prices in the country with the situation in afghanistan is under the crucial for international troops under control which are the afghan forces. the security situation really critical when it comes to about american young, i was up my mom about on and you out with that as long as you want. so yeah. like how about if i was on the funds? are these are friends most of these guys? some of them, they have ordered a mess. sometimes to day enough. i've done some right now down you can use up my power bill for the, for your yes missions in was on the area with my mom. huh. so how many of the person that you're sending out a used to be a child soldiers? that one i can stand like on death. i can't tell about how many do you think i can't. i can't. i can't tell what you're dealing with the minute people. i'm going to say this and it is this, and this ah, that's it in selecting i dismounted by the mafia says, and i quote, with both of the one they look low enough to hear anybody there you'll fall. you will learn how to use the tradition if you don't know for it with the sticks from the spirit with arrows. lesson the tradition. so if you are trying to single this me disoriented them staple in kind of swollen for that is not the case. may be critical of people who used to be fighting when they were very young that they now go to war. ready you think that's a problem? not that's not a problem boss. not a problem. just that by steps. young people are taking that from batches. yes. if i step sure. and even if they had started when they were 12 years old or 13, that's, that's not a problem. not a problem. is that the job as a car guy? his car. yeah. yeah. he's with god. so what are we us with plastic when they were the school? she's got physical framing. i, i'm never going to somebody and resorted to use you guys because of that is being that people work on. the reason what you're telling them is what they do on the other. some english the down to sure they've got the credit. the good companies reached on my phone, which company or example i'm dealing with for some time. ah ah ah, the private military industry is a part of how the country is. if i tours today, um, ah, the us government doesn't track a number of contractors. it uses in places iraq or afghanistan. we know it's a lot. we don't really know exactly how many i spent several years working within the industry. i have a military background. and one of the differences between being a soldier i found and being a private military contractors that when we work for the us military or any military, you take a sacred oath that you're going to serve and fight for your country as necessary, die to protect a way of life, one that you believe and i am an american soldier. i'm a warrior and a member of the sea. ah, i will never accept defeat me, i will never quit. i'll never leave a fallen comrade. it's the complete opposite in the private mil to world. you look at the budget 1st, the loyalty of these companies and these business men's change depending on the market forces we operate in the world's challenging complex emerging market. the middle east is absolutely the core for our business today. sir, we care the empower we perform and do the right thing on this industry is not just what you see is what you get. when you see a company, you don't know exactly who's working for them. they hire and they sometimes create will they call subs subcontractors? ah ah ah, there's been commanders in afghanistan who just simply said, we don't know who the subs of the subs. the subs are. so you have all these like layers of a contract. ah ah, levels 40 controls starts to fade quickly. the deeper you go from the top to the bottom. ah, united states army and the military in general. so reliance on the private sector. i would call the dependency, but we don't know who is the on the ground presence of these companies overseas. this is donna ah, mm hm. mm hm. ah, the 1st time i arrive to, to this training camp camp land i wrapped together would that to 2 white men from from the security company? oh, we're driving out and the small track and it's what's to was to camp through this forest, the landscape, not so far away from the airport. and when we enter the camp and get us out of the car, the 1st thing we see is this. say you can, an instructor wasn't shouts up, it's raining out there, making the recruits line up in order to receive these guys from the parent security company i down there was locked in for from iraq earlier. they were not there from the rocky, should i he needed they want to share your thoughts or support to what are your not on noticing without who those who know basic. i'm with ripple. this is all if you would have to come back up, right. if i to which a from, as you're young government is texas, the iraqi couldn't was considered a quite good deal in the sense that they could actually take local trouble. make us something a way to rec, for a couple of years. and then returning them after 2 years with and he, and from that overseas deployment, this could serve to stabilize security in sierra, ah let. mm hm. i down in the beginning of the training course, the one will weapons presence. so there are using these wooden sticks a 1st after a couple of days into the training that the weapons arrived there while being lined up at these wooden tables within in the middle of the big cam. a, there was this tension and excitement also attention mainly because now it's actually he getting into something very real for many of the recruits. so the 1st time holding a weapon since the ending of the civil law. a many were starting to to shake and some were way mist asking to cry when that when the saga the weapons not being able to to handle and i did that it it wrapped in black. that's come. brown bagging fluid. i gained one hour. i mean, what has gone back from the past. i sat there weeping source and often oh, and i'm saying this when i'm thinking a supposed to live or not again i so this is not my idea shown over again. what follows? i survive my life where point with no, oh oh oh, it's the still young on the will. what husband was mainly by young conventions. i know you're looking for young men to perform military jobs. the chances are quite good that they have also been charles diligence a with drop. oh we're right on i. 8 don't need to be all good and that's got sure you got to have the mice will shoot. i'm about fishing you from not about every day. i remember a few my father of my work with y'all when i was young. that a lot of things that i've been seeing a lot of day, which is not good for you monday. what went is because there's no job have your command on when i say go there and harass us before you have to load it by danny. don't do dutch you too, have been to this is so smart, city is a city that's using technology to make people's life easier to happier, collecting a lot of data to try to improve the way things are. in theory, these big organizations that are amalgamating and pulling all that data together, they're not looking at yours and individual, necessarily lose data being collected for so much data that there's a real possibility of privacy violation. and that's something most of us wouldn't want the world transparent, but we must live with permanent surveillance. when i would show seemed wrong when i just don't hold any rules yet to see how did they become the advocate an engagement. it was betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look for common ground. ah, with, when we think of war and the warrior who fights it, we have this image on our mind of a man in uniform. mm hm. and uniform means they're fighting as part of a military serving a nation, the cause that they fight for their force, political patriotism. and yet when you look at the wars of the 21st century, they don't match those assumptions anymore. now we have outsourced to lot of our warfare to private military companies in the background of this changing nature of war and who fights it. that dates back to the very start of the private military industry itself. with until the early ninety's, the for the security industry is a dock murky industry or outright mercenaries who are bringing down governments for the cash. mm hm. and you should have comes 1st proper private medical company. it was exactly that. it was a private company that could field a full all me if i had time, they had so just through incredibly highly trained and it moved into the private sector with rushes with cooper videos. which me saying is your opportunity to purchase folks with executive outcomes is a legend in this business. so they formed in south africa as apartheid. and they had a background in some of the special police forces during apartheid. elite units had death squads. some of the most controversial units in terms of their human rights records. no one dan to go with. they worked for oil companies, they work for governments like angola and certainly own. and this became controversial and international that he stepped in and said that you can't hire executive outcomes. so another company called san line international out of london sort of ended up taking on some of e o is contracts. sandlon a is a company that provides military consultancy services for governments. all large corporations are at the time. the idea was to get very posh english officers on top of these private military companies. and tim spicer was an officer in the military and british military. i got out and was asked to come help with a company called san line more executive outcomes rogue to be in this. we think they're extremely good. they're extremely professional in a very good track record. there are no. ready ready skeletons in the cupboard as well. i mean, we think that that would bring the human rights record and we would use them for the hires, the same people to south africa, but now they're legitimate because they're working under a contract. ready ready to spices arrival gave an almost instant singles of respectability toward had previously be unless you well i'm not i personally have any difficulty with the word must me. i just don't like the image that it comes up in most people's mind. if i saw them at tim spice, i was interviewing for newspaper, dashing and charming public school educated gods officer. and that really wasn't matching the feature ministry before then. it changed the agenda, the global agenda, and what a problem that your company was tim spicer was considered a respectable head of a mercenary organization, but at 1st, as business affairs didn't go to well, it was dogged by failure. for example, you got a phone call from a fellow indian with a type passport who was under house arrest for a financial scandal. and he contacted tim spicer and wanted him to restore the president of sharing with me once the president sherylin was back in power. this guy would then get his contracts for diamonds and be able to make money, but it didn't work out that way. the company landline run by tim spicer, full the lobby cuddle, is under investigation by customs and excise, and he's accused of smuggling weapons illegally. when a private firm gets involved in foreign politics for the benefit of a criminal, you have to stop and ask, okay, this really happened or is this the fictitious james bond type story, but it was a true story. these things tended to happen. that seems high, sorry, definite on that he'd always somehow managed to get ways we could, i don't wish to call them in pop and you're getting sound like were arrested at the airport. cuddled spicer is facing firearms charge is linked to his b to provide south african trade most recently to put down a local result they were thrown out of the country, but it was, it seems like there's always understood that the media is a risk, but can be turned he had to deal with the bad publicity from this operation, which previously would have been completely undercover. but i suppose spice's either genius or stupidity was to make it public and say, officially, no, this was a contract. this is the contract i signed. the recently retired british letter band of messenger is safely back in this country. so has this put him up? is new career as a hired gun? are you going to continue with this new new business of yours sand line international? well, i think we've got a number of lessons to learn from this particular episode. i think that we will continue to try and develop our business as long as we can do it in a central way. sand line eventually collapsed under the weight of bad publicity. was that a failure in the short term you could say that was not a successful company in terms of delivering an enormous amount of money to sheldon cycles. conversely, it launched him spies on a career where he was able to found more then become more and more significant problem. if you company in the world just who, when 911 heard everything blue the contractor content unfortunately went up astronomically at this hour. american and coalition forces were in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq, ideologically, republicans, my party wanted every single public function to be scrutinized, analyzed, evaluated, and if possible, privatized, general shinseki, the head of the u. s. army at the time, testified to congress and said, if we're going to do a rock, it's going to take several $100000.00 us troops and very quickly, the rest of the bush administration react negatively. and he's absurd, that's crazy. it's not going to require those amount of troops, and they actually essentially drummed him out of the military. it turned out he was right. we did deploy several 100000 forces. it was just through private military. ah, so in the early days of iraq, it was a gold rush. you had companies coming out of nowhere, including blackwater, who was really like a cowboy while law west when nobody at any control. anybody doing anything with firearms in this country could say they're a private military company, was an a t m for these companies? well, the basic idea of a contractor versus recruiting training and supporting military events is that there was room hiring a prostate getting married. so instead of a soldier who has an ex cost of a, you're now paying a contr

u. k. the european union and the u. s. have previously imposed russian sanctions and more are expected if diplomacy fails. stock markets have reacted to the g o political tension and the stand off as res and fears of a wider economic fought out. us officials have warned of what they called the mother of war sanctions against russia and bow expected to include measures targeting that move hooton's in a circle. and it's time to the west. washington and its allies have also been discussing border sanctions against sectors of russia's economy, including banking and energy. the measures meant to hurt the russian economy, but it's fear they'll also affect those of other nations. of the crisis has already pushed the price of oil and gas off, but it goes beyond energy. the cost of metals used for everything from ca, making and out of tronics to kitchen where and construction have also increased. so have the prices of wheat and coal, one on the possibility of a sudden supply crunch. russia and ukraine combined to make up a quarter of global grain exports. and kia has called on the west to avoid spreading panic that could put its economy at risk. when

u. k. government essentially facing coles to apologize on another front for it's a u. t o on mandatory vaccines in care homes. and of course out of the n h. s a critic site nurses have been treated like, quote unwitting guinea pigs. it was the white policy at the time, supported by the clinical evidence and the government make no apology for it has also proven to be the right policy in retrospect, given the severity of delta, which went to raj, take all our director of one nursing home in england, he says, well, when it comes to apologies, it's a case of too little too late. anyway. when we've been saying right up to the last day of the the, the mandate became necessary to be fixed. this was how home mckesson. we're getting 3 countertops traffic. and offer you an apology now is, is too light. and unfortunately it's not just the 40 to 70000 people that can stick to last that i need to apologize to. it's all the current can work as well because the burden of care fell straight on to the people that were left in the sector. and we know that the effects that it's hard on staffing. we were 120000 people. sure. prior to the plan that make and add